Heart of Steel
by Stad1um-Star
Summary: Gray Mann is preparing to play his trump card and the mercenaries are losing hope. As their world is overtaken by machines, they must band together in order to stop one of their greatest threats. Sequel to Mann vs. Machine. NEW CHAPTER COMING JULY 15TH
**Sawmill
6:23 AM**

The rain seemed to pour down endlessly as the team prepared for battle. Their weapons had been loaded and their bases were full of eager mercenaries waiting to get their chance at the Intelligence briefcase. The REDs were half-asleep, but a hearty breakfast courtesy of their Medic had woken most of the team up. The team entered their battle stances with Pyro leading the pack just to make sure no BLU Spies were creeping around the base. Suddenly, the intercom crackled to life and the Administrator began counting down the seconds until the match began.

 _5..._

 _4..._

 _3..._

 _2..._

 _1..._

"Get going, RED team! There isn't much time for silly games!" the Administrator shouted through the RED communication channel. The REDs rushed out of the base and spread across the map, save for Engineer. He had decided to stay and protect the base, which the Texan inventor didn't mind because it gave him something to do during the long, intense battles besides rush out into combat.

It felt like nothing could go wrong.

A few minutes had passed and the REDs had already racked up 2 points. The Engineer was bewildered by this fact; usually, BLU had some pretty strong defense. _I guess those BLUs have found another pasture to graze in,_ Engineer thought happily as he took a sip of beer from his Rancho Relaxo. As RED captured the intelligence for the third and final time, the intercom came on. "Victory." the Administrator said as fake cheering could be heard in the background. Suddenly, the sound became corrupt and began to crackle. "No! I won't l_t _u take...Mann...over, you wretched...aargh!" The audio then shorted out after a few seconds, stunning the REDs. Suddenly, a noise similar to thunder shook the area. Trees were collapsing, rocks were falling from the cliffs, and the team was rushing back to their base. "Incoming!" Heavy shouted as he sped back towards the base. "Giant blue metal thing!"

The Russian heavyweight's statement was correct. In came a hulking tank of sorts that towered over even the tallest buildings on the map. Suddenly, a large hatch on the front opened, revealing the contents. Inside was a vast army of robots that resembled the mercenaries right down to their body structures and facial features; save for the Demoman robots, which only had one eye. The RED team scrambled back into their base and looked out at their attackers. Soon the robots came rushing towards the base in a massive wave. The team readied their weapons and then unleashed their wrath on the robots.

This plan proved to be a failure as the robots kept coming. Medic's Übercharge could only prolong the mercenaries' lifetime out on the battlefield by a few seconds as the robots kept blasting away. Pyro melted most of them down to their endoskeletons, but that wasn't enough to destroy the hulking Soldier and Heavy robots, who had literally thrown Scout halfway across the map. _Any backup is as good as nothin' at this point._ thought Scout as he worked his way into the base. He noticed a surprising lack of defense as he made it into the resupply room. Scout found the room empty and the lockers completely bare of anything, save for a note that read "GONE TO NORTHERN WONFOURT, BE BACK NEVAH! ~ BLU Team". "Well, at least, they're bein' honest," Scout said to himself as a Soldier robot ripped open the resupply door and grabbed him.

Suddenly, a few bullets hit the robot's back. Heavy and Medic had come in with guns blazing and Spy was about to place a Sapper on the titan of a robot. Scout fell gently onto the lush, comfortable ground of Sawmill and retrieved his Force-A-Nature. The Bostonian shot a blast at the Soldier robot, which bounced off and knocked the Sapper from Spy's hand before a Medic robot ran over it. "You're going to get us all terminated, you stupid jogger!" Spy shouted to Scout as he reached for another Sapper. Scout fired his weapon again, this time hitting a Medic robot, creating a hole in its singular tire. This was only a minor snag as the Medic robot crawled towards a hulking Heavy droid and sent a Über through its systems, terrifying the mercs. As if on instinct, Medic flicked a switch on the bottom of his Medi Gun, immersing both him and Heavy in a scarlet barrier of energy.

As the battle raged on, a mysterious man stood on the hilltop near the RED base. He stared out at the carnage that had unfolded in just mere hours, knowing it would soon be over. _All has gone according to plan_ , the dilapidated elder thought as the REDs struggled against the constant onslaught of robots. He was the creator of those foul machines and only he had the "off switch" that would return them all to the dispatcher.

It was only a matter of time before the mercenaries would give in.

As predicted, the mechanical menaces eventually overwhelmed the RED team. Engineer's defense had been eradicated as a Spy robot had used a Sapper on all of his fabricated buildings, ammunition and health packs were being returned to the storage, and most of the team was badly injured and bruised. The Teufort Nine retreated back into their base once more, this time to load into Engineer's pick up truck and Sniper's RV for a long journey ahead.


End file.
